eres lento
/eɾes lento/from spelling rules
In Spanish, "you're slow" is translated as eres lento.
This phrase is used to tell someone that they move or act at a low speed. While eres lento can describe a person's nature, other expressions may be more appropriate depending on your goal. For example, Tienes un ritmo lento is a neutral way to say "You have a slow pace," and Eres poco ágil is used specifically to emphasize a lack of agility or swiftness.
Which one should you use?
The choice of phrase depends on whether you are describing a person's character or their current motion. Using eres lento implies that being slow is a permanent characteristic of the person's personality or nature. If you want to say someone is currently moving at a slow speed rather than describing their character, it is more natural to use vas lento (you are going slow).
How does it change in a sentence?
The form eres lento uses the informal "tú" conjugation. When speaking to a female, you must change the adjective to the feminine form lenta.
How do you pronounce it?
/eɾes lento/
Did you know?
- If you say eres lento to describe someone's movement, you might accidentally insult their intelligence. In many Spanish-speaking contexts, calling someone 'slow' implies they are dim-witted or 'slow on the uptake' rather than just physically sluggish.
- The word eres is actually a linguistic fossil. It comes from the Latin future tense 'eris', meaning 'you will be', and replaced the original form 'es' because they became too similar to pronounce.
Examples in context
- ¡Eres lento de narices! Siempre llegas tarde.You're incredibly slow! You're always late.
- Eres lento con la computadora.You're slow with the computer.
- Me dices que eres lento para caminar.You tell me that you're slow at walking.
Example conversation
Javier and Lucía are walking to the store.
- JavierCamina más rápido, por favor.Walk faster, please.
- LucíaEstoy caminando lo más rápido que puedo.I am walking as fast as I can.
- JavierNo, es que eres lento.No, it's just that you're slow.
- Lucía¡No soy lenta, Javier!I'm not slow, Javier!
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries eres, lento, CC BY-SA 4.0.
